Illustration Friday topic “soup”

My contribution this week for the “Soup” topic is the Bird’s Nest Soup.

“Bird’s nest soup is a soup made from the nest of a kind of cave dwelling swift.

The nests used for the soup are made by the edible-nest swiftlet. These birds live primarily in large limestone caves on islands . . . in Southeast Asia.

The nests are about the size and hardness of teacups; are essentially made from hardened saliva mixed with feathers, grass and twigs; and look like congealed strands of vermicelli.

Bird’s nests are a multi-billion dollar business in Asia.

The edible-nest swiftlet often build their nest in the most inaccessible of places: on the roofs and upper walls of high caves and even overhangs. These are harvested by men that sometimes climb hundreds of feet up to roofs of flimsy bamboo and rattan ropes and scaffolding. The men use special knives and three-pronged tweezers to cut and pull the nests off the cave walls. To get to some caves they have to swim through underwater tunnels, shimmy down vines from cliff tops.” Swiftlet and Bird’s Nest Souphttp://bit.ly/2gk7cX6